The Brooklyn Nets and the Portland Trail Blazers have been linked to each other for the past couple of months ever since Trail Blazers superstar Damian Lillard showed up to Barclays Center to watch Game 3 of Brooklyn first-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers in person. There have been rumors coming out the woodworks about the Nets pulling off a trade for Lillard especially since Portland seems poised for a rebuild that Lillard wants no parts of.
With the notion that Brooklyn could be leaning towards trying to win rather than rebuild, given the fact that they do not control their draft picks for the next few seasons, the Nets have been linked to various teams regarding players that can help Brooklyn win now. More to the point, most mock trades involving Brooklyn and Portland have been centered around some type of deal where the Nets get Lillard for a package involving draft picks and a promising young player or two like Mikal Bridges and/or Nic Claxton.
This recent mock trade by Bleacher Report is interesting as the hypothetical deal is between the Nets and the Trail Blazers, but Lillard is not part of the deal. Is something like that even worth considering for Brooklyn?